By Daria Iv.
Peak weeks reward systems, not improvisation. Smart Flats 24 shows what repeatable delivery looks like at scale, with centralized energy management and measurable cost outcomes
In late January 2026, Reuters reported a clear signal of how travel demand now behaves. After the FIFA World Cup match schedule was announced, flight and hotel bookings spiked. Demand moved in a wave, and it moved fast. For short-term rental operators, these spikes are not just a pricing opportunity. They’re an operational stress test. When arrivals compress into the same narrow windows, the business is judged on execution: check-in reliability, cleaning throughput, maintenance response time, guest support, and how efficiently utilities are managed across a portfolio. That’s why the competitive advantage in 2026 is shifting away from being listed and toward running a repeatable system.
A useful case study is Smart Flats 24, founded by Daniil Demchuk and operating in Prague, Czech Republic. The company manages over 200 fully equipped properties and is one of the fastest-growing operators in its market. Its growth is linked to a combination of service consistency and operational efficiency, including energy-focused practices that reduced consumption and improved cost control, plus a digital booking management system that supports faster, more reliable delivery. The company’s clients range from global IT giants such as IBM to automotive enterprises such as Škoda, a brand of Volkswagen Group, while their official partners include global brands such as Vodafone and IKEA, as well as travel and retail players such as Booking.com, Makro, and DATART. For a short-term rental operator, working with organizations of that scale typically pushes the business toward more standardized processes and more predictable delivery across units.
Below, we walk through the model in three parts: how the portfolio is standardized for peak weeks, how energy is managed at scale with measurable cost outcomes, and how the company adapted when demand collapsed.
Keeping Delivery Stable Under Load
Peak weeks punish variation. A portfolio can look professional online and still break under load if delivery depends on manual coordination. That is why Smart Flats 24 is best understood as an operating model built around control. It is designed to keep service consistent across units when arrivals cluster and timelines compress.
The system has three layers.
1. Standardize the stay so each unit behaves the same way
Smart Flats 24 treats the guest experience as a repeatable product. Check-in is designed to be low-friction through electronic locks. Payments are set up to be handled online. The company also provides accounting documents, which matters for corporate travel and reimbursable stays. These elements reduce exception handling, which is what usually overwhelms teams during peaks.
2. Remove bottlenecks that fail under peak load
Most peak week failures come from handoffs. Keys, timing, and support coordination become fragile when arrivals stack up. Contactless access reduces dependency on staff being in the right place at the right time. Standard processes make cleaning and maintenance easier to schedule because teams are not re learning a new setup for every unit.
3. Keep margin stable with portfolio-level energy control
Demand spikes raise utility consumption at the same time that operations are under strain. Smart Flats 24 adds a control layer that a marketplace does not provide. Centralized energy management with smart controls and automation helps prevent waste across units. It also turns energy into a managed variable, not a surprise bill at the end of the month.
Making Utilities Measurable at Scale
Short-term rental economics are often framed as a revenue game. Operators focus on occupancy, nightly rate, and the size of the booking wave. Those metrics matter, but they do not explain why two portfolios with similar demand can deliver very different profit.
The difference is usually on the cost side. During peak weeks, operating costs rise at the same time as workload. Energy is one of the biggest sources of that volatility. Turnover is constant. Guests arrive and leave at different times. Heating and cooling settings change from stay to stay. Lights and appliances can run when units are empty. If the portfolio has no control layer, waste is not an exception. It becomes routine.
This is where the management company’s model becomes measurable. Instead of treating utilities as a fixed overhead, the company treats energy as a managed variable across units. It uses centralized energy management with smart controls and automation.
The Smart Flats 24’s approach produces outcomes that can be tracked at portfolio level. The figures described in the company’s coverage include an average 25 percent reduction in electricity costs and a reduction of about 150 tons of annual carbon dioxide emissions. The mechanism behind those numbers is also important for readers who manage multi-unit operations. Smart devices are not rare. What is rarer is making them work as one system. One source describes a single dashboard that monitors and manages consumption across units. It also describes pattern detection that suggests further optimizations. That reduces the need for constant manual checking and helps the system keep improving over time.
Taken together, this is how the company protects margin when demand spikes. Peaks usually push utility usage up along with occupancy. Portfolio-level control helps break that link. It keeps cost growth more stable while revenue becomes more volatile.
What Happens When the Cycle Reverses
Energy control shows how the model protects margin in peaks. The next question is what happens when the cycle flips. A real operating system has to work in both directions. It has to absorb demand surges, and it also has to survive demand collapses.
In the Business Review case narrative, Daniil Demchuk, founder and CEO, describes the company’s response when the pandemic hit short-term rentals. The first move was not cosmetic. It was a demand shift. The company stopped relying on classic tourist flow and focused on segments that still needed temporary housing. It positioned units for professionals who needed a remote work setup, for locals who needed short stays, and for businesses that needed flexible accommodation for employees.
The second move was operational. The company chose to retain and retrain staff instead of cutting capability to the minimum. The logic is straightforward. Service quality is hard to rebuild quickly. Hiring and training during recovery can cost more than maintaining an experienced team through the downturn.
This is the same operating system idea in a different phase of the cycle. Standardization and control are not only growth tools. They reduce fragility. They also widen the options a company has when the market turns.
What to Copy Without Copying the Market
The World Cup schedule spike is a useful reminder of what the next cycle looks like. Demand can surge quickly and at scale, and operators do not get extra time to adjust. In that environment, distribution is not the differentiator. Execution is.
The practical takeaway is to design a rental business around peak conditions, not average weeks. That starts with treating the stay as a standardized product so units behave consistently and teams spend less time handling exceptions. It continues with removing bottlenecks that fail under load, such as manual check in handoffs, by relying on remote execution like contactless access and online payments.
Cost discipline belongs in the same operating system. Energy is too large a variable to leave unmanaged at portfolio scale. The International Energy Agency frames buildings as a major share of global final energy use. Smart Flats 24’s case shows what happens when energy becomes a controlled variable across units. Finally, an operating system is not only about growth. It also shapes resilience. When demand drops, the operators who recover fastest are the ones who can shift toward segments that still need temporary housing and protect execution capability instead of dismantling it.
That is the broader idea behind Smart Flats 24. Platforms can route demand. An operator has to deliver the stay. In 2026, the most durable advantage comes from building the control layer that keeps performance stable when the calendar triggers the next surge.
